Eighty Four, PA

Eighty Four is a Washington County community about 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, and its name is the part everyone asks about. The place was once Smithville, but postal confusion led to the switch to "Eighty Four" in 1884. The name later became nationally recognizable through 84 Lumber, whose headquarters are still here after the company was founded in 1956. The community is divided among several townships and school districts, so it reads less like one compact borough than a named place spread across the Pittsburgh metro’s southwestern edge. The local shorthand is a curious postal fix, a major lumber company, and a Pennsylvania crossroads with a number for a name.